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Smart storms from court during doctor’s testimony

SALT LAKE CITY — Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart stormed from a Utah courtroom today as a psychiatrist testified that her alleged attacker had been motivated by a desire to have children and create a new race in an imaginary Zion.

Forensic psychiatrist Paul Whitehead took the witness stand under subpoena during the federal trial of former street preacher Brian David Mitchell on kidnapping and other charges.

Whitehead said he gleaned this information from the journals of Wanda Eileen Barzee, Mitchell’s estranged wife.

Whitehead said Smart had been chastised by Mitchell and Barzee for not wanting to have children.

“Mr. Mitchell was talking with Miss Smart about having babies to the point where Miss Smart actually picked out a name in case that happened,” Whitehead testified.

At that point, Smart got up from her seat in the front row of the courtroom and left to a private area. Her mother followed.

Whitehead, a Utah State Hospital doctor, said he believes Mitchell suffers from psychotic illness.

The kidnapping occurred in 2002. Whitehead said he supervised the hospital unit where Mitchell, then a suspect in the case, was housed between 2005 and 2008 and diagnosed him with a delusional disorder. He believes Mitchell needed anti-psychotic medications but said Mitchell refused all treatments.

Mitchell was incarcerated at the state hospital after being deemed incompetent for trial in a parallel state case. Federal prosecutors took over the case in 2008.